14:1 | Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for your sin has been your downfall!* |
14:2 | Return to the Lord and repent!* Say to him: “Completely* forgive our iniquity; accept* our penitential prayer,* that we may offer the praise of our lips as sacrificial bulls.* |
14:3 | Assyria cannot save us; we will not ride warhorses. We will never again say, ‘Our gods’ to what our own hands have made. For only you will show compassion to Orphan Israel!”* |
14:4 | “I will heal their waywardness* and love them freely,* for my anger will turn* away from them. |
14:5 | I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily, he will send down his roots like a cedar of* Lebanon. |
14:6 | His young shoots will grow; his splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon. |
14:7 | People will reside again* in his shade; they will plant and harvest grain in abundance.* They will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon. |
14:8 | O Ephraim, I do not want to have anything to do* with idols anymore! I will answer him and care for him. I am like* a luxuriant cypress tree; * your fruitfulness comes from me!* |
14:9 | Who is wise? Let him discern* these things! Who is discerning? Let him understand them! For the ways of the Lord are right; the godly walk in them, but in them the rebellious stumble. |